One of the most important factors in maintaining good health is physical exercise. A number of major studies in recent years have demonstrated the health benefits of regular physical exercise, particularly in respect to maintaining a healthy cardiovascular system.
The present inventor is also named as the inventor in commonly assigned PCT Application No PCT/AU93/00367 directed to an exercise system which is incorporated herein by reference.
This prior application describes a fitness monitoring system comprising a personal exercise monitoring device preprogrammed with data to guide the user in a desirable exercise regime, the monitoring device including communication means enabling connection to a central computer system for downloading data recorded during an exercise session to the central computer. The central computer has stored information enabling it to rate the user's performance and provide performance reports which enable feedback to the user via a personal trainer.
However, a problem has been found with this prior art system in that when a client reaches their final exercise prescription, it is sometimes found that the final prescription is incorrect and that a slight increase or decrease in exercise heart rate is required to achieve the optimum exercise prescription for that client. It is also sometimes found that the client is not able to keep up with the programmed rate of progression to the final prescription and that an adjustment to the programme is required. However. when clients are asked to alter their exercise prescription they feel that they have failed in some way, whereas in truth the original assessment process simply failed to predict the correct final prescription with sufficient accuracy.
This problem is addressed with an improvement to the exercise monitor, whereby the concept of final prescription has been abandoned and continual user feedback is used to adjust the prescription gradually such that the user always approaches a final heart rate band from below. Once in this final band, the prescription will tend to remain within the band over time depending upon various factors affecting the client.